Monday, June 26, 2006

local and global

I am a long way from home. I have flown many miles to sit among many accents, spending the next 4 days in a roundtable conversation with 20 others around the topic of mission to Western Culture.

Our starting point is the suggestion that mission does not start with the theory and the general, but in the local church, in the everyday lives of the peoples of God. I smile at the irony in this: I am a global traveller to a many-accented conversation about the local.

So with my heading spinning between local and global it was good to receive news of this:

Culture Yeah Right is a collection of essays (3 by me), plus an accompanying DVD, that explore the nature of culture, and the implications for ministry among the real lives of our young people. Culture Yeah Right is based on the conviction that ministry practitioners in this country have a lot of experience and wisdom to offer both here in Aotearoa-New Zealand and the international youth ministry scene. It’s aim is to provide local-grown resources and stem the tide of always gazing seaward for overseas youth ministry resources.

2 Comments

Wow, I’m glad that you have said this, because this has been one of my passions for a long time, and also a bit of a soapbox for me.

I am very aware of the need for a lot of people to see the need to go overseas and start saving the world that way.
But, i feel a great push (for lack of a better word) to begin evangelising on and from our own doorstep.